Author: Axelryo

1I had hoped that by the end of the trip, I wouldn’t have to write any more blog posts. 2Apparently I was wrong– My dad is making me write one more for the one year anniversary of our return home. 3I could argue that this is a waste of my time. 4I am stuck on a plane, and I could be finishing my summer reading, on which I’ve certainly procrastinated, or I could finish an SSAT practice test I’ve already started, or I could just be watching a movie… all of which I probably should have done more of this summer. 5But no. 6Here I am, sitting in seat 34C of American Airlines flight 943, giving myself a taste of the past.

7You know, it’s a pain to have to take the SSAT, so to give you the agony of how I feel… in the middle of my own practice test: 8Here’s a practice SSAT for you (That means it doesn’t count.).

Our family loved Budapest. Despite the heat, we spent most of our time outside. Whether we were walking over famous bridges, or chilling in Hungarian baths, we were having fun. I hope someday we can come back to Budapest! (Or I’ll have to look at the pictures my dad tortured us with.) Once again, a peek into my super-secret trip journal! here we go! Continue reading →

“Dad, where the heck is Croatia, why the heck is Croatia so popular, and what the heck makes people want to go there???”

“Well Alexander, I think you’ll find that all out in due course, don’t you think?”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

Our family had been excited for Croatia ever since we booked a sailboat trip down the Croatian archipelago. We also knew that we were to go to two popular cities, Split and Dubrovnik. We even got to spend our eight days with some family friends who have been living in Spain for the last year– Lynn and Bill Carr– and their two kids, Evan and Maddox, aged 10 and 8 respectively.

I was excited to travel with another family on a sailboat, but we were also going to two obscure-ish Croatian cities which I didn’t know anything about. When my parents explained to the Carrs about how we kids should create a pre-port, I knew I had work to do. (if you want to see my Croatia pre-port, it’s here.) Now was a time for desperate measures. Now was the time to use my ‘secret’ weapon. Now was the time to use TripAdvisor!!

Personally, I never thought I’d ever like a theme park without rides. But that was before Puy Du Fou, a “historic” theme park in the countryside of France which lets you experience history through a bunch of shows. And no rides.

All the shows were realistic and engaging (except for maybe one which only had a lot of singing), with epic stunts. If Paris Disneyland doesn’t live up to my expectations, then I think Puy Du Fou will achieve the honor of “Alexander Belfiore’s favorite theme park in all of France”. There was even blood! Continue reading →

Okay, two things. Number one. I know that Lagos is supposed to be this huge city in Nigeria that nobody’s heard about because heck, it’s in Nigeria. The point is, this is a different Lagos. Number two. The “s” in Lagos (only the one in Portugal) sounds like “sh”. I won’t have any of you scalawags saying it the wrong way.

Morocco was probably the country in which I was most pleasantly surprised. It was an all-around fun country to spend time in. My entries are about the first three days in Morocco, all of which were quite fun.